Brian and Brandon close out the two-part conversation marking the 25th anniversary of 9/11, covering the post-9/11 surveillance state, the media's complicit framing to direct our anger, and failures in modern government and corporate culture.

They open with the origin of the baker's dozen, then Brandon reflects on his freshman year of college in 2001 and the search for clarity 25 years later. Brian recounts seeing Come From Away, the story of 7,000 airline passengers diverted to Gander, Newfoundland, and contrasts that solidarity with the long-term effects on American life. They recall the morning of 9/11, lingering post-traumatic hallucinations, and the silence over Phoenix Sky Harbor's flight paths.

The conversation covers how fear shaped the Patriot Act and NSA surveillance, why Flight 93 and Todd Beamer are rarely memorialized, and a Gallup poll where voters responded differently to Obamacare than to the Affordable Care Act, the same policy under different names. They also discuss the claim that government should run like a business, elite capture, corporate R&D cycles, anomalies in the Epstein files, and 1990s gifted education programs, closing with the final stretch before Election Day.

Topics covered:

• The baker's dozen and the origin of 13 as an unlucky number
• 25 years after 9/11: personal memories and Sky Harbor's silent skies
• Come From Away and the people of Gander, Newfoundland
• Flight 93, Todd Beamer, and civilian agency
• The Patriot Act, NSA surveillance, and security theater
• Media framing: Obamacare vs. the Affordable Care Act in Gallup polling
• The claim that government should run like a business
• Elite capture and insecurity in leadership
• Corporate R&D cycles and deregulation
• Anomalies in the Epstein files
• Gifted education programs and the final stretch before Election Day

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https://briancalaway.com">Learn more at BrianCalaway.com

Number Twelve brings on Brian Matlock, who is running for Arizona State Mine Inspector. Most voters do not know this is an elected office. Brian did not either until he became a Pinal County precinct committee person and got asked to look into it.

Arizona is the only state with an elected mine inspector, written into the state constitution in 1912. Brian explains why that independence matters. The office answers to voters and the legislature, not to a governor who can simply remove someone for asking hard questions.

Brian is a mechanical engineer who spent his career in design, manufacturing, and inspection roles, including work with dragline chain used in strip mining and later hard rock mining wear products. He talks through his path from Tennessee to Oregon to Arizona, and how a foundry job making chipper discs led him into the mining industry.

The conversation covers what he found when he started digging into the state office's public reporting. He compares it to what the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration publishes and explains why the gap concerned him enough to run.

Other topics include in-situ copper mining at Florence Copper, the Oak Flat mining method and how it compares to open pit mines, abandoned mines across Arizona including uranium sites on tribal land, and ideas for community-based abandoned mine surveys. Brian also talks about the fifty-year run of Democrats not holding this office, the current appointed opponent, and why he believes safety oversight should not be a partisan issue.

Listen to the full conversation for the details on mine safety data, the history of the office, and Brian's plans for community outreach and abandoned mine cleanup.

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Brandon and Brian open with movies, Kevin Costner flops, and Waterworld before sliding into something more serious. The episode gets into corporate consolidation, banking deregulation, and why so many people feel stuck working harder for less.

Brian shares door knocking numbers from the campaign trail. As of this recording he has logged over sixteen hundred doors this month alone. He talks about what he hears at the door, from people grateful just to have a candidate show up to people whose retirement accounts have convinced them nothing else matters.

The conversation turns to the Arizona Clean Elections debate forum for Legislative District Ten. Brian was one of three candidates who showed up. Brandon breaks down the numbers across all twenty two legislative districts and finds a striking pattern. Far more Republican candidates statewide skipped the forums entirely compared to Democrats.

They talk about why that might be, what Clean Elections funding actually is and where the money comes from, and how the two party system often operates less like genuine opposition and more like a shared ownership structure with different messaging teams. The episode closes on AI risk, the sixth extinction, and why neither party's extremes actually represent most of the people stuck in the middle trying to get by.

• Clean Elections debate forum turnout across Arizona House districts
• Where Clean Elections funding comes from
• Door to door campaign numbers in Legislative District Ten
• Banking deregulation and consolidation
• Corporate valuation versus real value
• Wage stagnation and household debt
• AI risk and emergent technology regulation
• Why both major parties struggle with their own fringes

If you want to see the Legislative District Ten forum for yourself, Brian recommends watching it directly rather than taking anyone's summary of it.

2026 AZ LD10 Candidate Forum: https://www.youtube.com/post/UgkxpuHmrPR2dmZJ5YRJtxnfa_mBKNnWgbAz